QNAP TS-262 NAS Drive Review

The QNAP TS-262 NAS Drive Review

The NAS market at the start of 2023 has really been shaking things up, with moves by all the top tier brands attacking the home and prosumer tier of private server buyers with very different wares on offer! Whilst Synology have been shifting the home/business point of a number of their popular diskstation devices, QNAP has been doubling down on their hardware choices at that same tier and either upgrading what works or swapping out what doesn’t The QNAP TS-262 NAS is designed to be a more affordable Intel-powered alternative to the prosumer ad fully featured TS-264, that still keeps the elements of prosumer hardware that continue to draw the eye of PC-builders and more tech versed buyers, who nonetheless still find the appeal of a turnkey pre-built solution convenient. Arriving in a 2-Bay and 4-Bay version, the QNAP TS-x62 series hopes to be a more confident entry point for first-time NAS buyers and SMB’s looking to move away from 3rd party cloud, but is this a notable improvement over the now 3 years old TS-251D that it serves to replace? It’s price tag of $439 / £399 / €439 (tax and shipping where you are will likely reflect this price in your region) is possibly going to place it outside of the scope of Value/ARM NAS buyers, but here are the Highlights of the QNAP TS-262 NAS

• Intel N4505 Dual-Core Celeron, 2022 Q1 Released Processor
• 4GB DDR4 Memory (Cannot be Upgraded)
• 2.5GbE Network Ready (1x Ports)
• USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gb/s) Equipped
• SATA HDD/SSD Bays and RAID Support
• m.2 NVMe SSD Bays
• PCIe Upgrade Slot for Network/Storage Upgrades
• HDMI 2.1 Output
• 2-Year Warranty (extendable to 5yr)

QNAP TS-262 NAS Review – Quick Conclusion

The QNAP TS-262 NAS is a substantial update on the QNAP TS-251D (even worth considering for those who opted for the TS-251D or TS-251B previously) that features a more modern CPU that allows increased internal performance. This translates in hardware to M.2 NVMe SSD support, a larger bandwidth PCIe Upgrade slot, USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gb/s connectivity and 2.5GbE by default. Some areas of the device are less compelling, such as that fixed 4GB of memory meaning that the price needs to reflect the extra RAM on day 1, but you also cannot scale that extra memory further as your processes grow years from now. The limiting of those M.2 NVMe SSD bays to PCIe Gen 3×1 makes alot of sense, giving the range of this PCIe3 Celeron CPU makes sense, but is nonetheless going to annoy some users. lastly, the hardware gains in the system featuring much, MUCH more powerful and visually appealing HDMI 2.1 is a fraction let down by the HD Station software getting fewer and fewer feature-rich updates (outside of stability and performance fixes). As far as running the QNAP QTS EXT4 software platform on the TS-262, you will have little to no complaints, as it can run the bulk of the 1st/3rd party applications available to the software, just remember that you are running a dual-core and two thread processor – so the glass ceiling in terms of hardware resources is going to be a pinch lower than some of their Pentium, Intel Core or Xeon systems of course. After a bumpy start to 2022, with the brand needing to win alot of users back after being targetted by ransomware groups and missteps in communication, fast forward to the start of 2023 and you have a much more secure, closed and layered QNAP NAS platform here.

Choosing the QNAP TS-262 NAS over the increasing range of 2-Bay’s in the brand’s portfolio is a little less straightforward, with the TS-262 nestled somewhere between the TS-253E, TS-264, HS-264 and TS-364 (with several more 2-Bay options in the TS-x51+, TS-31P3 AND TS-31K still listed on their official site). I also think the TS-262 would do better to have been released alongside the TS-264 (and the rest of the x64 range), when the portfolio was a little less clustered and its status as an affordable alternative to the TS-262 made alot more sense! The QNAP TS-262 is designed for users looking to spend a little less on base hardware, whilst still buying a device that can be scaled in storage, network bandwidth and more down the line. QTS still continues to be fully featured and has a great many new security and access defaults/settings introduced to limit novice users leaving doors open, but still has a fractionally steeper learning curve than many of its competitors, often trying to do too many things at once (or at least not stopping an end user doing too much at times), which can lead to occasionally bumps in the road when using their platform on a more modest system as this. The QNAP TS-262 is a great 2-Bay NAS and a solid refresh/update on the TS-251D, but if you can stretch your budget a fraction more, I recommend opting for the TS-462 or TS-264 ($100-200 more) as much like this device doubles down on it’s predecessor hardware, so do those two NAS ram things up further for your money. A good NAS indeed, that lives a tad in the shadow of it’s own brothers and sisters!

SOFTWARE - 6/10

HARDWARE - 8/10

PERFORMANCE - 8/10

PRICE - 8/10

VALUE - 9/10

7.8

PROS

👍🏻Very compact chassis design, despite large storage potential
👍🏻A BIG jump in hardware and scale from the QNAP TS-251D
👍🏻Easily one of the most hardware-packed SMB/Mid-range 2-Bay on the market
👍🏻HDMI 2.1 Support is fantastically future-proof!
👍🏻m.2 NVMe SSD Bays AND a PCIe Upgrade Slot (no need to choose one upgrade path)
👍🏻8x Included Camera Licenses
👍🏻Includes Anti-virus, Firewall Tool, VPN client tools, Malware Remover, network manager and Security Councilor Tool
👍🏻3 Different Container/VM tools that also feature image download centers
👍🏻10Gb/s (1,000MB/s) USB Ports will be incredibly useful
👍🏻Large range of expansion options in the TR/TL series in 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 Bays

CONS

👎🏻The PCIe Slot is PCIe 3x2 and the M.2 SSD Bays are PCIe 3x1 (likely limitations of all this H/W on a Celeron+chipset
👎🏻HD Station application needs more updates by the brand
👎🏻Fixed 4GB of memory will annoy some users
👎🏻The QuTS ZFS Platform is not available
👎🏻Software can be a little inconsistent under excessive use and features a steeper learning curve than Synology

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QNAP TS-262 NAS Review – PACKAGING & ACCESSORIES

The accessories included with the TS-262 NAS are fairly standard, with one exception that left me slightly underwhelmed. The package includes a setup manual, information about the 2-year hardware warranty and the option to extend it to 5 years, screws for 2.5/3.5″ drives, a Cat 5e ethernet cable, and an external PSU. All of these items are well packaged and typical for this type of device. The only downside was the inclusion of a Cat 5e ethernet cable, as this model does not have 10GbE connectivity.

It will likely come as little surprise that the TS-262 arrives with an external PSU (65W). An external PSU is easy to replace, as it’s covered by the warranty and supported by many third-party options. Additionally, an internal PSU would generate a pinch more heat and have to be factored into the chassis design and ventilation when in 24×7 operation. Additionally, having a spare on hand is an added convenience. According to QNAP, power usage is 8.1W in standby mode and 12.4W in active use when the system is fully populated.

Overall the accessories that the QNAP TS-262 NAS includes are all fairly standard and certainly enough to get the system up and running (not including your HDD/SSD media of course). Let’s discuss the design of this NAS and what changes have been made on the TS-262 vs the TS-251D from 2.5yrs before.

QNAP TS-262 NAS Review – Design

The QNAP TS-262 NAS features a chassis that is similar to that of the TS-251D and TS-264, with a plastic material that covers an internal aluminum metal framework. The arrangement of ports on the device is largely unchanged, however, the quality and number of ports have been increased. The system uses a removable tray design and also features a lockable and slidable front panel which provides added security. One aspect of the design that I particularly appreciate is the choice of a copper/rose-gold and black colour scheme, which I believe is a significant improvement over the metallic blue of its predecessor. The chassis is compact and appears smaller than other 2-bay NAS on the market, however, this is because the TS-262 uses a longer and deeper chassis, relying more on horizontal airflow, resulting in a more oblong shape. This design choice allows for improved thermal management and better cooling performance, making it a more effective option for those who are looking for a compact yet powerful NAS solution. Additionally, the compact design makes it easier to integrate the NAS into a variety of different environments and setups, whether it be a home or a small business setting.

The TS-262 has a more streamlined design on its front panel, lacking the LCD display found on larger business/enterprise NAS systems in the QNAP portfolio. Instead, it utilizes multiple LEDs to indicate system activity, network status, copy/backup activity, and individual LED indicators for the HDD storage media bays. The internal M.2 SSD bays also have their own LED indicators, however, they are only visible when the chassis is open. This design choice allows for a more minimalistic and streamlined front panel, while still providing users with the necessary information about the system’s status and activity.

QNAP TS-262 NAS Review – Ports & Connections

Back in early 2020, we made a guide on HD Station on what it can do on the QNAP NAS platform. We will be revisiting this subject later in 2023, but the general features, services and abilities of HDStation in QTS 5 remain largely the same at the time of writing. To find out more about it and what you can/cannot do with the HDMI port on the TS-262, watch the video below:

QNAP TS-262 NAS Review – Internal Hardware

Updates to NAS hardware is often motivated by changes in the wider tech industry, with advancements in technology, changes in consumer demands, and improvements in manufacturing techniques often driving these updates. In the case of the TS-262, QNAP typically refreshes this series every 2-3 years, often coinciding with updates to the Celeron series of processors. The TS-262 features the Intel N4505 processor, which is a significant upgrade from the Intel J4025 used in the TS-251D. To access the inside of the TS-262, one must remove the three rear screws and slide off the side panel. Inside, we find the larger SATA HDD storage bay cage and the key components of the TS-262. The Intel N4505 processor is located under a large, black heatsink and does not require an active cooling fan, as is common in desktop NAS systems of this scale. The CPU heatsink is in line with the rear active cooling fan.

That N4505 CPU inside the TS-262 has also allowed QNAP sufficient available PCIe bandwidth to also include two M.2 NVMe SSD slots on the NAS too. This is something that QNAP has only tended to provide on their rackmount systems and much higher-end desktop solutions, despite their biggest rival Synology providing this for almost 5 years now at the same hardware tier. Now as good as this sounds (i.e to have a PCIe upgrade slot AND the m.2 NVMe SSD slots) there is good and bad news. The good news is that unlike Synology and its inclusion of M.2 NVMe SSD slots, the 2280 slots inside the QNAP can be used for more than just read/write caching. The use of SSD caching to provide performance benefits to a slower, but larger and more affordable Hard Drive RAID away are quite well established in the NAS industry, using the SSD space to either write files to the system faster (acting as the primary write area, before moving the data) or increase the speed of accessing commonly requested files on the NAS (making copies of those files onto the SSDs, though largely tiny files are optimized and do not really affect larger block/sequential data). However, though the QNAP TS-262 supports SSD caching on these bays, it also supports their use in QTier. This is similar to caching but in QTier the available HDD and SSDs are combined into a single storage area and it intelligently moves files periodically to the appropriate storage media as it analyzes their access and requests. Finally, if you wish, you can use the NVMe SSD bays for just a fast accessing and performing storage pool and volumes of it’s own. These two bays, plus the 2 HDD bays, plus adding a PCIe SSD storage card in the available bay mean that the TS-262 has enormous storage potential. These m.2 bays can also be used for system upgrades, but these are still quite few in reality and it is only the google TPU m.2 upgrade that increases AI system processes that is recommended in 2023 so far.

However, as good as all that sounds about the NVMe SSD bays, it is worth also factoring that (much like the PCIe Upgrade slot) in order to provide these bays and still provide the rest of the system hardware from a relatively simple Intel Celeron processor, QNAP has had to narrow down the architecture of these bays for reasons of physical profile and available PCI lanes+chipset. The result is that the m.2 Bays are PCIe 3×1 in architecture, or 1,000MB/s in bandwidth each between the installed m.2 and the system. That means that if you are buying PCIe 3×4 SSDs for your  NAS, such as the Seagate Ironwolf 510 or WD Red SN700, they will be somewhat bottlenecked to 1GB throughout each (though they can be RAID’d). It is still better to have these bays in this somewhat streamlined fashion than to not have them at all, but it is worth keeping this in mind when considering the future upgradability of the QNAP TS-262 NAS.

The internal hardware of the TS-262 is by FAR one of the best example of a prosumer/SMB 2-Bay NAS in this price tier from both QNAP and any other brand. Yes, they have had to make a balancing choice between providing a multitude of upgrade and scaling paths in the hardware architecture vs the CPU available, but overall I really cannot challenge them on the range of ports, connections and internal hardware that is available here. I am a little surprised by how much hardware is inside the TS-262 and so close together (leading me to imagine that this system with a fully populated 2-bay storage RAID, 2x NVMe SSD, on-board 4GB memory and a PCIe card would get really hot, i.e. fans going NUTS!) but you cannot really argue with the wide range of options available to the end useR in terms of the day 1 level of hardware on offer, as well as the many ways and means you can change this system in it’s lifespan to best suit your storage and network requirements. Let’s discuss the software included with your TS-262 NAS.

QNAP TS-262 NAS Review – Software & Services

Alongside the hardware of the TS-262 NAS, you also receive the complete software and services package of QNAP QTS (currently in version 5.0). This is a complete operating system. similar in design and presentation to Android OS, it runs hundreds of applications, services and functions, as well as arriving with many mobile and desktop client applications that allow you to interact with the data on your NAS in a much more tailored way. Alongside this, the QNAP QTS software on the TS-262 also includes a few extra SSD tools for anti-wearing on SSDs, better SSD profiling and even options to separate the media into storage, caching or tiered storage where appropriate. The performance and services of QTS have been covered many times on this channel, so reviewing it’s individual performance on the TS-262 NAS is a difficult task, as we have to look at two key things. Is QTS a good software platform and is it safe

On the first score, I can comfortably say that QNAP NAS software and services have truly come into their own and the balancing act of supplying the end-user with the flexibility to use the system ‘their way’, whilst still keeping it user-friendly is the best it has ever been. Is it perfect, no. In its efforts to make itself customizable in every way possible, QTS develops an inadvertent learning curve that may catch some novice users unaware. Likewise, although QTS 5 has done a lot of work on its presentation of information and notifications, there is still the odd moment of ‘TMI’ when switching between services on the fly. QNAP’s NAS software is still easily one of the most adaptable in the market right now and allows users to have a truly unique storage environment if they choose and although not quite as user-friendly as Synology DSM, it counters this by being fantastically flexibly by comparison (from file/folder structure to 3rd party services support and connectivity). That said, 2020-2021 were a bumpy road for the brand and a series of ransomware attacks were targetted at the brand that was caused by a combination of vulnerabilities in Linux (which practically all NAS and Android software is built upon) but also in how applications in the QNAP platform were allowed to have external access. In previous revisions of QTS, customization and guidance for changing settings on the system was made very easy and open but lacked a lot of the gravitas and significance that these changes add to the system being highlighted to less experienced users (such as allowing the QNAP to adapt remote ports on your router over UPnP and how the HBS3 program allowed remote access. These omissions, vulnerabilities and communication issues in QTS have seemingly been resolved and QTS 5 seems to be a much tighter system on the whole (as much as anything can be once you open it to the internet). But many users still feel that the brand needs to do more and therefore until QNAP can remove the lingering stories of ransomware and malware over time, this si always going to be an existing sensitive issue for buyers. In order to see the extent of the latest version of QNAP TS 5.0 use the links below to the written review and video below released in late 2021:

FULL Written QNAP QTS 5 Review	FULL Video Review of QNAP QTS 5

Although the full review of QNAP QTS is available in the article and video linked above, let’s discuss the highlights of the platform. First off there are the software and services for managing files and folders on the fly. QTS includes several tools for managing files in your web browser (with full copy, paste, archive, extract, sharing, etc options built-in), as well as smart system/file search functionality.

Then security when using your TS-262 NAS (again, a continued area of contention and criticism for QNAP in the past) in customization and alerts have been noticeably improved and upgraded in both their deployment and presentation in QTS. These range from a multi-layered security advisor to control anti-malware scans, anti-virus schedules, firewall monitoring and more. There is also a range of access and security credential tools that are quite far-reaching all built-in. With QNAP having to prove their platform is safe more than most, there is a bit shift positively in this direction in the latest versions of QTS.

Overall storage management, access, mounting and how this factors into backups have also been massively diversified in QTS and along with numerous means to create a very unique storage system (factoring RAID, multi-stage 1-2-3 backups, connecting with cloud drive/objects and how this is presented to the end-users are incredibly deep. It can lead to a situation in which the end-user is a pinch overwhelmed, but you cannot say that QNAP is not providing the tools – they are just almost TOO numerous in their presentation.

The same goes for multimedia handling on the QNAP TS-262, with a wide range of tools for handing photos, music and video in a tailored GUI to each media type. This is made considerably easier with QNAP’s multimedia console tool that provides a single GUI that can be used to handle all the backend setup of all your individual media apps. QNAP also provides AI photo recognition to allow decades of photos to be searched intelligently for people and subjects to quite an impressively deep degree (not needing internet access to do so, with the AI onboard the system). Then you have support for a wide range of 3rd party multimedia tools such as Plex media server, Emby, Twinky and Kodi (unofficially).

Then you have business tools (small, medium or even enterprise) included that can range from the deployment of multiple virtual machines across many platforms and a dedicated 1st party container deployment tool. One very unique feature of QNAP QTS compared with other NAS brands in their deployment of VMs is that they include 2-3 click download options in their respective applications that allow you to download ready to use VM in Windows 7,8 and 10, as well as a VM market place for more enterprise virtual clients and even a Ubuntu 18/19/20 VM deployment tool that allows you to quickly set up a VM and then access remotely OR use the HDMI+KVM set up locally. The container station tool also has its own pre-built tool repository too.

Finally, for surveillance use, the TS-262 arrives with QVR Pro which allows you to have a business class surveillance platform hosted on your NAS. This platform has its very own GUI that supports thousands of IP Camera brands, as well as the software arriving with 8 camera licenses with the TS-262, a multi-camera feed display, intelligent alerts, AI services (hardware appropriate), multiple client tools for mobile/desktop clients, integration of 3rd party system management tools and you can even attach USB cameras to your QNAP NAS and have local cameras fed into the NAS too.

So, software on the QNAP TS-262 is pretty diverse and although the brand has seen its fair share of security complaints in the past, I think that it would be hard for me to ignore the range of NAS hardware configuration, services and tools that are included.  Tests of the QNAP TS-262 on how it performs as a Plex Media Server, host for Virtual Machines and more will be conducted shortly over on NASCompares YouTube channel. I recommend visiting there to learn more. Below is the video review for the QNAP TS-262 NAS

QNAP TS-262 NAS Review – Conclusion & Verdict

The QNAP TS-262 NAS is a substantial update on the QNAP TS-251D (even worth considering for those who opted for the TS-251D or TS-251B previously) that features a more modern CPU that allows increased internal performance. This translates in hardware to M.2 NVMe SSD support, a larger bandwidth PCIe Upgrade slot, USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gb/s connectivity and 2.5GbE by default. Some areas of the device are less compelling, such as that fixed 4GB of memory meaning that the price needs to reflect the extra RAM on day 1, but you also cannot scale that extra memory further as your processes grow years from now. The limiting of those M.2 NVMe SSD bays to PCIe Gen 3×1 makes alot of sense, giving the range of this PCIe3 Celeron CPU makes sense, but is nonetheless going to annoy some users. lastly, the hardware gains in the system featuring much, MUCH more powerful and visually appealing HDMI 2.1 is a fraction let down by the HD Station software getting fewer and fewer feature-rich updates (outside of stability and performance fixes). As far as running the QNAP QTS EXT4 software platform on the TS-262, you will have little to no complaints, as it can run the bulk of the 1st/3rd party applications available to the software, just remember that you are running a dual-core and two thread processor – so the glass ceiling in terms of hardware resources is going to be a pinch lower than some of their Pentium, Intel Core or Xeon systems of course. After a bumpy start to 2022, with the brand needing to win alot of users back after being targetted by ransomware groups and missteps in communication, fast forward to the start of 2023 and you have a much more secure, closed and layered QNAP NAS platform here. Choosing the QNAP TS-262 NAS over the increasing range of 2-Bay’s in the brand’s portfolio is a little less straightforward, with the TS-262 nestled somewhere between the TS-253E, TS-264, HS-264 and TS-364 (with several more 2-Bay options in the TS-x51+, TS-31P3 AND TS-31K still listed on their official site). I also think the TS-262 would do better to have been released alongside the TS-264 (and the rest of the x64 range), when the portfolio was a little less clustered and its status as an affordable alternative to the TS-262 made alot more sense! The QNAP TS-262 is designed for users looking to spend a little less on base hardware, whilst still buying a device that can be scaled in storage, network bandwidth and more down the line. QTS still continues to be fully featured and has a great many new security and access defaults/settings introduced to limit novice users leaving doors open, but still has a fractionally steeper learning curve than many of its competitors, often trying to do too many things at once (or at least not stopping an end user doing too much at times), which can lead to occasionally bumps in the road when using their platform on a more modest system as this. The QNAP TS-262 is a great 2-Bay NAS and a solid refresh/update on the TS-251D, but if you can stretch your budget a fraction more, I recommend opting for the TS-462 or TS-264 ($100-200 more) as much like this device doubles down on it’s predecessor hardware, so do those two NAS ram things up further for your money. A good NAS indeed, that lives a tad in the shadow of it’s own brothers and sisters!

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